


Squirrels and Authenticity

by A_Fool_in_Love



Category: HOBB Robin - Works, Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb
Genre: But very in love with Patience, Chivalry is reticent, Eccentric Patience, F/M, Love, Squirrels, authenticity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 23:56:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9688970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Fool_in_Love/pseuds/A_Fool_in_Love
Summary: Prince Chivalry Farseer is charming, polite, and holds himself to a high standard of behaviour. He has also been called cold and aloof. Lady Patience wants nothing to do with his formalities, pleasantries, or platitudes."Enough of that nonsense. I want to hear what Chivalry has to say, not what Chivalry thinks would be proper to say."And with that, he fell in love.





	

“Oh, hush,” Patience said, stamping her little foot and looking at him with fire in her eyes. “Enough of that nonsense. I want to hear what Chivalry has to say, not what Chivalry thinks would be proper to say.”

Chivalry’s restraint was all that stopped him from gaping at the girl. “Forgive me, but I meant no offence. I-“

He was cut off when Patience made a bird-like chirping sound and glared at him. He stopped, flummoxed. 

They were in the gardens of her family’s home, walking sedately. Chivalry was walking sedately, anyway. Patience had dashed ahead here and there, pointing out flowers and herbs that she’d chosen, and telling him stories of the gardeners, and the kitchen staff, and about how squirrels were apparently much larger than she’d expected further north. She had thought that they would be smaller so that they could survive on less food during the winter. Chivalry had supposed that made sense, but there was no flow to her conversation at all. 

And now she was looking at him angrily, when he’d done nothing but be polite. 

“Well you do offend me,” she said with a stubborn look in her eyes. “You offend me very much with your politeness, and your careful words, and your- your- manners! All of it! I demand that you stop it at once!” Patience’s voice went very shrill on the last words, and Chivalry mastered himself before he could wince. 

What could he possibly say that would please the girl, he wondered desperately, and he blinked several times before he could venture a response. 

“I apologize sincerely, Lady Patience.”

“ _Oh!_ ” Patience shrieked, and then she tossed her hands up in frustration and stomped off ahead of him down the path, holding her skirts in her hands almost indecently high.

Chivalry hastened after her. “Lady Patience, please wait!” he called. He took long strides, but did not run. It wouldn’t have been proper to chase her that way. He was tempted, though, because she was storming off in a huff and he had no idea how to fix it.

“Wait?” Patience turned and rounded on him. She was a picture, with pink suffusing her cheeks and fire in her eyes. “Why should I wait? So that I can hear more dishonest, meaningless platitudes? Why, I’m sure that if I were to try, I could compose every one of your responses to everything I say based solely on the civility of the words involved. ‘I apologize sincerely, Lady Patience!’ ‘You’re quite right, Lady Patience!’“ She made her voice deep as she mocked him, and then returned to her shrill scolding. “There is nothing of you at all in any of it!”

Chivalry stood before her as if struck. “I apologize,” he started, and then at the look on her face, he began again. Her words had hurt him, just a bit, and he wanted very urgently to explain himself. “If my phrasing has offended you, I cannot-“

Patience turned and began striding away again, her nose in the air. 

“Lady Patience, if you’d but allow me to explain myself,” Chivalry beseeched, once again hurrying after her. His legs were much longer, and it wasn’t a difficult thing, but he felt very silly. At last, though it was the height of rudeness, he reached out and took her by the wrist. His heart leaped to his throat when he realized what he’d done, and he expected that at any moment she would pull herself from his boorish grip and shout at him. Instead, she stopped and looked up at him with a challenge and just a bit of satisfaction in her eyes.

Chivalry took a breath. “My words… I may speak… No, that isn’t it. I’m polite with you not to lie or mask my intentions, but rather to show my respect. I… I enjoy hearing what you have to say. My replies are not mere platitudes or falsehoods, and I apologize sincerely for giving you that impression.” His brow furrowed and he struggled for a moment to find the words for what he wanted to say. “Please don’t go,” he said at last. “Tell me more about the squirrels.”

He held his breath while Patience studied him. Her eyes narrowed and she stared at him very hard. 

“Tell me what you think about the squirrels,” Patience challenged instead.

His immediate instinct was to compliment her cleverness, or perhaps to make some remark on the variety of wildlife that could be found in Buck Duchy. He bit it back and then tried again. “I’m afraid that I don’t really think about them at all,” Chivalry said honestly. “But, I would like it very much if you told me more.”

Patience nodded once to herself and then took her place at his side, beginning an exposition on the sorts of squirrels she’d encountered in her gardens, and the types of things they seemed to like best to eat. Then she moved on to discuss the woodpecker that she’d seen near her window, and a fan she’d made all of bird feathers. 

Chivalry listened, and he said little except to nod or encourage her to continue. She seemed content enough with that for now. In between responses, Chivalry found himself admiring the gleam of the sun in her hair, and the curve of her nose. He looked away, but could still admire the passion in her voice, and her fascination with the world. She was led by her feelings and she seemed to do exactly what she pleased, no matter what the world thought. Or what the crown prince thought. 

“Well?” Patience’s demand intruded on his thoughts. “What do you think? And I do mean what you think, not what you think I want to hear. Unless you think that I want to hear what you think, because I do.”

“I think that’s wonderful,” Chivalry said, and the words left him without a thought because she was. She was wonderful.

Patience’s eyes searched is face. “Yes, you do, don’t you? Good. Come along! I want to show you the frogs in the pond over by the berry bushes.”

Later, Chivalry would not remember half of the things they’d talked about. He would remember her free spirit, though, and the look on her face when she asked him what he wanted to say, not what he thought would be proper to say. He would also remember far more than he’d ever thought he would know about squirrels.


End file.
